Considering that this year Christmas will be called off for me, I've had more Christmas atmosphere so far here in Vietnam than I wished for. Walking through the deserted streets of Sapa in winter clothes, through fog as thick as soy sauce, with the fancy Vietnamese sparkler-like street lighting dancing over the closed stands turning Sapa into some big Christmas fair almost made us thing Christmas carols. Luckily, as soon as we descended a few meters under the Pho (soup) of fog, we had clear vision of the surrounding ricefields in the mountains, devided like honeycombs and attended by the local tribes.
Our hotel (Pinocchio) was run by a very nice family, with whom we spent one evening playing with their little one and breaking open and eating snails like pistachios.
The mother probably had a bit too much snails since she was lying down with stomach convulsions the day after. (We have seen lake Sapa meanwhile, where the snails probably were caught in. Explains a lot.)
The next evening, after having a nice trek and exploring a cave without a proper light, mostly just with the autofocus lamps of our camera, we spent some time in a (the) bar playing pool with some surprisingly open-minded Hmong girls. They really kicked our ass (and weren't afraid to tell us so...).
By the way, I am by now proud carrier of at least two Hmong curses. They weren't specified exactly but I am afraid that they were a rotting feet curse and the ubiquitiously dreaded snoring curse...
See more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157608645631803/
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